Local philanthropist Betty Chinn just wants to make one thing clear: she has not been harassed by any political camp.

Chinn, who has largely dedicated the past two decades of her life to feeding and caring for Humboldt County's homeless and less fortunate, said she was shocked to hear Wednesday of a story that ran in several local newspapers suggesting that she had suffered harassment for endorsing district attorney candidate Allison Jackson and had withdrawn her public support as a result. In fact, Chinn said, she never even agreed to endorse or support the candidate, nor any other in the district attorney race.

In the news article, which was authored by local freelance journalist Daniel Mintz, Jackson is quoted as saying that she is honored to have Chinn's support, but became aware that Chinn's public endorsement was impacting her mission to care for the community's less fortunate. Jackson said she then removed Chinn's name from the list of supporters on her campaign website.

"I am deeply troubled that she has had to endure any type of harassment due to her support of me in this election," Jackson said in the article.

For her part, Chinn said she doesn't know how she wound up listed as one of Jackson's supporters to begin with, but chalked it up as a misunderstanding.

Chinn said she has only met Jackson once, when the candidate accompanied Rex Bohn to a Chinese New Year dinner that Chinn threw for some of her supporters. Chinn said Bohn introduced her to Jackson and that she told the candidate she admired her for running for public office. Chinn said she wasn't contacted by Jackson or anyone else from her campaign after that.

Consequently, Chinn said, she was surprised when she got several calls from people who volunteer their time helping her and several people from where she works at Lafayette Elementary School saying they'd noticed Chinn's name on Jackson's list of supporters. Chinn said she has made a point over the years of not getting involved in politics and was especially distressed because Jackson's website referred to Chinn as the 2008 Minerva Award winner in reference to the honor Chinn received from California First Lady Maria Shriver for her work with the homeless.

"I would never use that title to endorse anyone because it's not my title, it's the homeless's title," Chinn said, adding that she quickly called the campaign to ask that her name be removed from the list. "I wanted them to drop my name -- not because (Jackson) is right or wrong or a good or a bad person -- but because my gift is not in politics and I don't get involved in political things," Chinn said. "I think it was just a miscommunication that my name was there at all."

Chinn said she was relieved when her name was promptly removed from Jackson's website and thought the issue was behind her, chalking it up to a simple misunderstanding. Then came the release of Wednesday's articles, one of which ran in the Arcata Eye under the headline "Chinn chased away from Jackson camp." (The McKinleyville Press and the Independent ran with Mintz's suggested headline of "DA candidate: Endorser's name removed from list to protect her.")

Chinn was adamant that she was not harassed and did not receive any pressure to withdraw her endorsement.

For his part, Bohn said he walked away from the Chinese New Year conversation with Chinn and Jackson believing that Chinn had agreed to endorse the candidate, but said it was just a miscommunication.

"I think (Chinn) misinterpreted what she was being asked," he said. "She's not a political person. I think it was just a big misunderstanding. Everything I know about Allison is that she interpreted everything Betty said as a supporting statement."

For her part, Jackson was hesitant to comment on the situation. She said that she, like Bohn, was under the impression Chinn had agreed to endorse her. Jackson said that she was later told that Chinn had received "repeated calls," and was asking to be removed from the endorsement list. Jackson said she didn't know the content of the calls placed to Chinn, but interpreted them as a form of "harassment." Pressed for details as to how she came to that conclusion, Jackson largely declined to comment.

"I simply cannot engage in a political scheme that puts someone in the spotlight that doesn't want to be in it," Jackson said, later adding: "I hope that this ends here because this is a woman that is very private and doesn't want to be in the spotlight."

She went on to say she was deeply saddened by the whole topic and said it's a shame this has become a "big issue," but would not concede that her comments to Mintz and her allegations of harassment seemed to inflame what Chinn, at least, considered to be a non-issue.

"I thought that statement was crafted carefully enough that it would put this issue to bed," Jackson said, adding that she even specifically asked Mintz not to run the story in an effort to protect Chinn's privacy.

Mintz said he has no recollection of Jackson making that statement.

"I don't remember her saying point-blank: don't run the story," Mintz said Friday. "I definitely don't remember her saying that, but she may have expressed hesitancy."

Mintz said he was unable to reach Chinn for the story, and Chinn admitted she didn't even know Arcata had a newspaper until she started getting calls Wednesday.

Chinn said she wanted to tell her side of the story only because she wanted to clear the air and publicly say that no one has harassed her.

While she is not endorsing or publicly supporting anyone in the district attorney's race, Chinn said she is publicly supporting Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass in the race for 4th District Supervisor. However, Chinn said, that support has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with Bass' long history with Lafayette Elementary School, their personal relationship and the fact that Bass has volunteered her time to help with Chinn's outreach efforts.

"That's more out of friendship," she said, noting that she also supported former Eureka City Councilman Chris Kerrigan in his bid for the city council, also because of his ties to Lafayette Elementary School.

But generally, Chinn says, she stays out of politics, including this year's district attorney race.

"I'm sure they're all good people and have courage to run for office to better the community," she said. "But I'm not publicly supporting anyone. That's not my field."